January is National Mentoring Month, and ARCHS is celebrating with the recent news that it has received $31,744 from the City of St. Louis to provide career exploration activities through its Juvenile Justice Mentoring Program.

ARCHS' Juvenile Justice Mentoring Program provides adult mentors to juvenile offenders associated with the Missouri Division of Youth Services (DYS). Fathers' Support Center in St. Louis serves as ARCHS' program partner to provide the mentoring services.

Most recent data (FY12) of ARCHS' Juvenile Justice Mentoring Program:

Parents with children in the program indicated an overall positive perception of the mentoring activities. On a scale of 1-4, parental scores averaged 3.65.

Through the program, 18 youth received GEDs, and 11 enrolled in secondary education, such as college classes.

In the spring of 2010, DYS selected ARCHS to deliver its Community Mentoring Services Program (CMSP) to youth in the Greater St. Louis area. CMSP's goals are to decrease social isolation and exclusion, increase safety, increase stability, and increase the control of choices and meaningful use of mainstream resources. Simply put, help transform troubled youth into productive citizens and in return make positive changes in a community.

"ARCHS has outstanding connections with both agencies and informal and formal natural support networks, and a successful track record of managing transition partnerships, such as its experience with adult (ex-offenders and welfare to work) transitions," said Tim Decker, Missouri's DYS Director. "As far as leveraging resources, we know that when we invest a certain amount, ARCHS will return a greater value and has the ability to monitor outcomes. By partnering with ARCHS, there is a better chance to get better outcomes. It is sort of like an insurance policy."

National Mentoring Month, a campaign led by the Harvard School of Public Health, shines a spotlight on the need for mentors to our nation's youth to help provide them with a better and brighter future.